Residents from the city of Alexandria and Fairfax County formally
committed to work as a joint task force. The task force would focus
on neighborhood impacts created by the opening of the Mark Center
facility, and work to hone in on what potential solutions would be
realistic and achievable. The selection of a task force chairman
was made via a nomination by Jennifer Porter of Barry Wilson. The
group unanimously approved the nomination, which was accepted by Barry
Wilson, a resident of the Palisades community in Fairfax County.

Representatives from the Fairfax County Department of Transportation
(FCDOT) distributed maps to the task force, which illustrated the
neighborhoods/subdivisions that were in close proximity to the Mark
Center. Concerns expressed by the task force included safety
concerns, such as speeding vehicles and the parking of cars on narrow
roads; congestion on main roads adjacent to their neighborhoods; and
cut-through traffic. FCDOT staff presented information about
topics that focused on potential areas affected by commuter traffic and
overparking of neighborhood streets.

Mark Canale provided an update about the BRAC’s four main posts:
North Post, Fort Belvoir, the Mark Center, and the Medical Military
Command. He also discussed his role as Fairfax County’s coordinator
with the city of Alexandria. His attention is focused on the
localized impacts of parking and traffic along the Fairfax County/city of
Alexandria boundary. Traffic counts would be taken before the Mark
Center opens to get baseline counts. He asked the newly created
task force to identify major cut-through roads and intersections to get
baseline counts.

Tom Burke discussed a traffic analysis that focused on the
impacts to Route 236/Little River Turnpike, Beauregard Street, Van Dorn
Street, and the Mark Center. Land use processes and revitalization
opportunities were being reviewed by the Virginia Department of
Transportation and Fairfax County to look for options that would provide
potential improvements to traffic flow in the area. The date of
occupancy of the Mark Center is anticipated to begin August 9, 2011.

Maria Turner provided an overview of Fairfax County’s Residential
Permit Parking District (RPPD). She also discussed the initial
plans of the city of Alexandria to establish its own BRAC RPPD. The
areas in the city of Alexandria for the potential BRAC RPPD were reduced
from five to three, and the managers of the program were leaning toward a
day time only parking restriction. Fairfax County transportation
staff already had planned to conduct a parking study in the spring to get
baseline counts from neighborhood roads in close proximity to the Mark
Center. If in the fall, when the Mark Center was anticipated to
open, the overparking of neighborhood streets became evident, the
affected communities would be provided with a petition to initiate the
RPPD process.

Seyed Nabavi did not attend the meeting because of an unexpected
emergency.

Based on the presentations by FCDOT staff and questions by the task
force, the topics for discussion at the next task force meeting were
determined:

Barry Wilson, task force chairman, indicated the importance of
future task force meetings to be held on evenings that did not coincide
with other working groups’ BRAC meetings. He suggested the first
Tuesday of the month, rather than the last Monday of the month. New
meeting dates would be announced when the scheduled meetings of other
working groups could be verified. A tentative date of March 1 was
suggested. The meeting ended at approximately 9 p.m.